@Deranox: You can't right now. Rather, use one of the other options to open a background tab. 1) select "open link in new background tab" from the context menu (second choice), 2) use middle-click on the link with your mouse; 3) use Ctrl+leftclick on the link with your mouse, 4) designate a mouse gesture to open a background tab when you perform it over a link.

I'm sorry that other browsers corrupted the Opera-invented code for opening new tabs to always open them in the background, and got people thinking this was the "normal" way to do it, but for now, Vivaldi is using the original method invented by developers who worked for the founder back in the day, and an option to adopt the copycat altered version is not quite available yet. Rather, there are four other ways to do it.

BTW: "Don't switch to it automatically" and "open in background" are the same exact thing.

@Ayespy Thank you for the quick reply! I know that other browsers reversed the method to open new tabs, but as I said, it's much better for me that way.

Imagine having a list of links in a page and you want to open all of them in quick succession, but not view them right now as what you're viewing on your current page is much more important atm. Going back and forth open > view > back > open new link ... it's tedious to say the least.

If you could pass this along I would be grateful. I don't know what status and say forum mods have here when it comes to features, but I'm hopeful that your voice will be heard louder than mine. I've submitted it as a request, but I doubt they'll consider it without it having 100+ upvotes.

Is there no way to tweak the behavior externally ? Be it with an addon or CSS or about:config(?) (I use FF so I don't know the equivalent here for that) ?

@Ayespy I rarely use a mouse as I'm on a laptop and ctrl + click with a touch pad isn't exactly comfortable. It's something that the team should consider a higher priority in my opinion. A mainstream feature as it may be, there are more mainstream users than ex-Opera users for sure and we're all used to it working that way. Again, it doesn't HAVE to be by default, just give us the option.

@Pesala Well for you maybe. I and I'm sure lots of others aren't used to browsing that way, especially on laptops. You're talking about ancient Opera stuff, but how many used Opera in the first place ? Mainstream user needs need to be addressed quickly as those are the people that are in bigger number these days.

I am getting the feeling that instead of wanting more options added, there's this old Opera cult that everything should be done that way without change thus such features aren't made. If the Vivaldi team truly wants to fulfill user needs, it needs to think about every user, not just ex-ancient Opera ones.

There are more people coming from a browser that has what I'm asking for by default than from Opera and I'm not asking to make it a default in the first place. Just ... give us the option to change it for those that are used to the other way.

@Deranox You need to understand that Jon, who developed Opera in the first place, is also the driving force behind Vivaldi. It was because new Opera became just like all other browsers that he wants to develop something for those disappointed by the changes, who long for the unique features that Old Opera had.

His mission statement is to produce a browser that is highly customisable, but that takes time. The first things to do would be to fix the things from Old Opera that we all miss. Meanwhile, other features liked by those migrating from other browsers will also get implemented.

It is anybody's guess what we will get first as it has more to do with how long it takes than with how many users want it. Since there are 10,000 feature requests, and only a small team of developers, it make sense to prioritise what is still missing from Old Opera first before adding stuff from Chrome, Firefox, or Maxthon, etc.

There is no need to insult loyal users by calling us a cult. You are free to leave if you don't like Vivaldi or the forums. Don't be surprised if people who have been using Opera since 1990 don't feel the need to change any time soon.

@Pesala I wasn't trying to insult anybody. Sorry if it came out like that. Anyway, it seems there's nothing more to be discussed. I wonder though, is there an extension that allows me to do what I want ?

@Deranox Sorry, I was not aware of that. I don't use the extension myself. Here's another one that can do the same thing, but it has additional features that may or may not conflict with existing Vivaldi features (tab opening/closing behaviors). I'm not sure about that. Here's yet another

Oddly enough, I found this thread a few minutes ago while searching for a way to turn off the auto switching.

Personally, I find it extremely annoying, and I don't feel like I should have to change the way I've been using a browser to get the result I want.
Also, the wheel on my trackball is set to double click (yes, on purpose) and that's not changing, so "middle clicking" is not a thing for me and likely never will be.
Also, if I'm just surfing on the couch on my HTPC, Control+Click is also a non starter.

I believe it would be nice to allow the user to set the default behavior they way they want, and indeed a very smart gesture to attract more users looking for a browser that in many ways addresses the shortcomings of Chrome and Firefox, without having to delve into the Opera way of doing things. It's fine for those that like it, but for me, it's tantamount to flipping a QWERTY keyboard so that it was a POIUYT keyboard and expecting people to type with the same speed and accuracy.

If the developers want to 'stick to their guns' as it were and not change the default action for "open link in new tab" I'd be fine with that if I could choose to make "Open Link in New Background Tab" the default action.

I've been trying Vivaldi on and off for just under a year now, and I've seen it improve overall with each release.
As an example, initially the side panel would never open. So I went back to Firefox and Chrome for a while. Eventually the panel opening got fixed, among other little things. I'm trying to recall if this new tab behavior was present in the first version I tried, and I'm somewhat sure it wasn't. In any case, encountering it yesterday was jarring and frankly annoying, more so when I went through all the settings and could find no way to turn it off.

Now that I know it's that way intentionally, I can work around it with the Background Tab option, but it's aggravating. Part of why I keep trying Vivaldi is that it offered more end user control over the browser, while Chrome to a much greater degree Firefox seem hell bent on removing as much control as possible from the user. That said, I don't want to use something like the old Opera either.

@JamalTaylor: I know that even the fastest speed of development (and Vivaldi is the fastest I've seen in the last 20 years) can be frustratingly and agonizingly slow. But I would be surprised if the option you are looking for never appeared.

I never used it before Vivaldi because I never even used tabs in opera 12, I always opened in new window, even manually with ctrl-N.
After a couple of days of Vivaldi usage, middle click and ctrl-click became a normal behaviour for me as I had to learn to live with tabs. I still don't use more than 3-4 tabs opened at the same time as I still find it a waste of resources keeping more, and close as soon I finished to need that tab.
I chose to gave it a try instead of insisting that "I needed" the other behaviour.
Said that, I'm more than happy if there will be an option for everything, we have to give it time and use the bugreports to suggest the changes.